Findings on public phone use from the Teleuse@BOP3 study have been published in the Indian media. An excerpt of one, published by Yahoo, India follows:

A new study says public telephones are the most frequently used method of making calls by Indian women at the bottom of the social pyramid compared to other South Asian nations like Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand.

Indian men at the bottom of the pyramid, on the other hand, rely more on their mobiles, the study said.

Women can walk into a phone booth at any time to connect to friends and families without the fear of being harassed, spied upon or discriminated against in terms of gender.

Home phones, said the study, exposed the women to being censured.

‘The respondents said children and others would overhear what was said. Public telephone was never a hassle and PCO owners would sometimes allow them credit if they ran out of money,’ Rohan Samarajiva, CEO of LIRNasia told IANS over telephone from Colombo in Sri Lanka.